Philosophy 267: Philosophy of Religion (5 Credits) Everett Community College, Spring Quarter 2015 Instructor: Mike VanQuickenborne; Mike will be fine Contact Info: Office: Gray Wolf Hall 311 Office Hours: T & Th: 12:20-2:25 Message/Office Phone: (425) DUTYFUL 1 Email: mvanquickenborne@everettcc.edu Twitter: @VanQuickenborne (Sign up if you'd like to get philosophy-related tweets.) Snow Day Info: to receive an sms or email in case the campus is closed sign up at: http://www.everettcc.edu/emergency/notification/ Room/Time/Item #: Gray Wolf 284 / Tu & Th 2:40-4:50 PM / Item # 6956 The nearest bathrooms: By the elevators Prerequisites: Placement in English 101 is required Required Text (available in the bookstore): Peterson, et al. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings 5th Ed. Required Videos (available in the EvCC library): Trekkies, directed by Roger Nygard, 1997, US, 86 Minutes, PG God on Trial, directed by Andy DeEmmony, 2008, UK, 85 Minutes, NR Nova: Universe or Multiverse?, directed by Rushmore DeNooyer, 2011, US, 45 Minutes, NR Useful websites (we will NOT be using Canvas): phil267.weebly.com The Course: Welcome to Philosophy of Religion. The course is a philosophical study of religious thought focusing principally on the religious-philosophical and theological thinking associated with a variety of major religious traditions. The course will follow the lecture-discussion format. Distribution Information: This course counts for the Humanities, Social Science, and Transfer Elective requirements. 1 Email is my preferred method of communication. Voicemail will be checked on Tu & Th, email M-F.
Course Goals: Broadly stated, I expect that at the conclusion of this course you will be able to: analyze a variety of arguments for and against the existence of God describe the most commonly accepted attributes of the Western conception of God assess the validity of different attempts to justify religious belief demonstrate that you have mastered the above objectives through constructive dialogue with your classmates as well as in the form of written essays Non-Assessable Course Goals: Broadly stated, I expect that by the conclusion of this course you will: experience doubt experience confusion open your mind to new possibilities My Expectations: In order to meet these goals I have the following expectations of you: This classroom is smaller than you think. Anyone who arrives to class late is necessarily disrupting the ability of their classmates to learn. Leaving early is just as much a distraction as arriving late. Such behavior is rude, and I expect you to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Those students who are late or leave early will be noted in the attendance record and could find it very difficult to earn any extra credit in the course. You must be familiar with the student code of conduct found in the student handbook. It is also required that you treat each other with respect at all times, especially with regard to disrespectful comments and behaviors (facial expressions and other mannerisms). Remember that this classroom is smaller than you think. You must also treat me with respect. This requires that you remain silent when I am talking, and never text during class. We will have many opportunities for discussion of the material, but I ask that you bring up any points for discussion to the whole class, not just those seated next to you. When we are having a classroom discussion, I ask that you only raise your hand when someone is finished speaking. Anyone who fails to exhibit respect for their classmates or myself will be removed from the classroom, as is discussed in the student handbook. You must ensure that your cell phone does not ring during class. You must have your own textbook and bring it to every class meeting. Every hour in class requires 2 hours of work outside of class. Your Expectations:
In turn, you may have the following expectations of me: I will treat you with respect. I will start and end class on time. I will grade your assignments fairly. I will listen to your comments and questions patiently, and respond to them to the best of my ability. Requirements: In order to reach these goals I have assigned readings from our text which I expect to be completed before class begins each day. In order to ensure that you are in fact completing the reading assignments before class, I will require that you answer a short essay question that I will be assigning at the end of many class periods. Answers should average approximately 250 words. I will be collecting your answers at the beginning of class. If you are late to class or absent due to a non-emergency, you will not be able to hand the essay in. They will be graded on a scale of 0,,, and +. Other than a score of 0, each grade will receive the same credit. You can miss up to two of these and still receive full credit (60 points) for this assignment. If you miss either three or four of these you will receive 45 points for this assignment. If you miss either five or six of these you will receive 30 points for this assignment. If you miss more than six you will receive 0 points for this assignment. In order to assess how well you are meeting the class goals you will take 2 objective, multiplechoice in-class quizzes (which you may use any non-photocopied notes on), each worth 10% of the final grade, and 2 essay exams (see Exam Handout for more details), each worth 24% of your final grade. Finally, one term paper (see Term Paper Guidelines Handout for more details), worth 20% of your final grade, is required. How to submit your assignments: I encourage you to submit assignments to me by the deadline via email as a PDF file. Doing so will enable me to annotate your assignments (as will submitting printed/written assignments). I will provide short comments, underlined words (to indicate misspellings or otherwise draw your attention to a particular passage), squiggly underlined words (to indicate an awkwardly phrased passage), and highlighted words (to indicate that the passage is unclear). If you submit an assignment via email you will receive a reply indicating your credit on the assignment. Please be sure to include your name on your assignment. Finally, by submitting a file to me electronically, you are assenting to allow me to anonymously excerpt from it in order to share particularly good passages with other students. You may also email your assignments in non-pdf format, but in that case you will only receive a score with no commentary on the essay.
Course Grade Breakdown: PERCENT POINTS Short Essays: 12% 60 points In-Class Quizzes (2 x 10% =): 20% 50 points each = 100 points Essay Exams (2 x 24% =): 48% 120 points each = 240 points Term Paper: 20% 100 points = 100 points TOTAL: 100% 500 points (NOTE CAREFULLY!) Late Assignments/Missed Quizzes or Exams: If you miss class the day of an assignment, you cannot make it up, except in cases of illness or an emergency. Note that an unexpected request to work during class is not an emergency. You have to make a choice between making school or work the higher priority. Your chances for succeeding in this class will increase if you make school the higher priority. If you feel ill or there is an emergency I will require two things: 1) you, or someone who is acting on your behalf, must contact my office (via email or voicemail) on the same day that you have missed class, and 2) when you return to class you must provide written documentation supporting your claim. If you fail to meet either of these conditions, I will not allow you to take a make up, or give you credit for your assignment. DO NOT COME TO CLASS IF YOU ARE FEELING ILL. If you show up on the day on assignment is due, there will be no extensions of due dates. Plagiarism & Penalties: From the NY Times, July 5, 2010 To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery : In surveys of 14,000 undergraduates over the last four years, an average of 61 percent admitted to cheating on assignments and exams. Webster s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed., defines plagiarism as to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one s own. Plagiarism is completely unacceptable and any student who cheats on an assignment will receive a score of zero for that assignment and all future assignments in the course. I will also report the incident to the Behavioral Intervention Team which may take further disciplinary action. Extra credit for class participation: Engaged class participation is crucial for your success as a student. As an incentive I will boost any student s grade by one quarter (e.g. a B+ would become an A- ) if they are actively engaged in the course. The following behaviors will result in less extra credit being awarded to a student: showing up to class sick, poor attendance not due to illness, arriving late after the first week, leaving early, talking when I or another student is talking, being disruptive, texting, sleeping in class, or not paying attention. Extra credit can be a significant boost to your grade in the class, so I encourage you to take it seriously.
Statement of Disability Accommodation: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please talk to me today, or make an appointment to see me soon. Mental Health Statement: An article entitled Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges, published in the NY Times on Dec. 19, 2010 and written by Trip Gabriel, stated that: Forty-six percent of college students said they felt things were hopeless at least once in the previous 12 months, and nearly a third had been so depressed that it was difficult to function, according to a 2009 survey by the American College Health Association. If you find yourself feeling that things are hopeless, please know that things are never hopeless and I am glad to talk to you. We also have professional counselors employed at the college who are there to serve all students. They are located on the third floor of Parks and can be contacted by phone: 425.388.9263 or email: counseling@everettcc.edu. 1. HOW THE EXAMS AND QUIZZES WILL WORK: a. EXAM: You will be given the essay questions in the class period before you will be given the opportunity to write on two of them in class. The list of questions you will be given will have between four and six questions on it. Each question may have multiple parts. We will determine which questions I will ask you to turn in by picking them at random on the day of the exam. For the essays you may use the text, notes which have not been photocopied, and even completed essay questions. The answers to these essay questions should be a minimum of 400 words in length. The most important part of each answer will be your explanation of your answer. You will have the entire class period that day to hand these two questions in. b. QUIZ: On the day of the exam itself you will be given 50 multiple choice questions to complete, for which you may use any resources you like, except the text itself. The questions will be worth one point each and you will not be penalized for guessing. 2. HOW TO ANSWER THE ESSAY QUESTIONS: a. Answer the essay exam question in complete, grammatically correct sentences as thoroughly and accurately as possible. b. In order to maximize your score, answers should reflect a thoughtful reading of the texts. This means that quotations or carefully cited paraphrases of the primary source readings are necessary.
c. Be prepared for some questions to ask you to describe the ideas of an author we read, some questions to ask you for your own thoughts on what has been said, along with your reasons for your thoughts, and some questions to ask you to apply what an author has said to a concrete situation. d. Your answers should not rely on your religious beliefs for their persuasiveness. e. Make sure you leave yourself time to carefully proofread your answers. While I do not deduct for things such as spelling mistakes, a paper replete with such errors will leave me with a bad impression, which is something that you want to avoid. 3. HOW TO AVOID PLAIGIARISM, WHICH IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE: a. Whenever you are using an idea that is not your own you must acknowledge the originator of the idea, otherwise you are guilty of plagiarism. b. When quoting or paraphrasing a text, give the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence and if you are quoting, explain any quotes you use. For example: Smith writes in Fun with Philosophy that Reality is transcendental (342). What he is saying here is that reality is not something to be grasped by our senses, because it transcends the physical world... Note that the period follows the page number in parentheses, unless your quote is three lines or longer, in which case you should indent and single space the quotation, and then the page number would follow the last punctuation mark. 4. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: a. If you do all of the essays for a given exam before the exam begins I will give you 5 points extra on that exam. 5. IN CASE YOU MISS CLASS ON THE DAY OF THE EXAM: a. If you miss class on the day of an exam due to illness or an emergency remember that you must contact me that day to inform me why you ve missed the exam and when you return to class you must bring me written documentation to support your claim. You must email all of the essays to me by a date we agree to. I will randomly select two of those essays to grade. You will not be eligible for the 5 points of extra credit if you miss the day of the exam. b. If you know in advance that you will be unable to attend on the day of an exam you must let me know in advance so that we can make arrangements for you to take the exam.
Term Paper Objectives Philosophy of Religion Term Paper Guidelines Your term paper for this course will cover three (3) essays NOT covered in class from one of the following sections in our text: 5. Knowing God Without Arguments 7. Divine Action 9. Atheism and Nonreligious Approaches 10. Miracles 12. Religion and Science 13. Religious Diversity 14. Religion and Morality Your paper should have two main sections: first of all provide (in your own words) a summary of each of the articles in the section you have chosen. (It must be a minimum of two paragraphs per article.) In the second section, you should explain which author you think is most correct about whichever topic you have chosen to write on and then you should support your view of which author is correct with your own reasoning, reasoning which should include attacking the reasons the authors you disagree with have given for their positions. Be sure to discuss all three articles in the second section of your paper. For citation and plagiarism avoidance tips, consult the Essay Exam Handout given to you at the beginning of the quarter. Finally, let me encourage you to do your best on the paper, as it is worth 20% of your final grade. Format Guidelines The paper must be typed and double-spaced, with (standard) one inch margins (left and right, top and bottom). Again, I recommend you email me your term paper in PDF format. If your paper is not typed you will not get credit for it. Given these standards, I expect that if you use 12 point Times for your font (this is not a requirement, but it is a recommendation) your papers will be in the 5 to 6 page range. If you use a different font, your paper length could vary from these recommendations. Due Dates You must indicate which readings you will be investigating in writing no later than April 30th. If you do not do this, you will lose 5 points on your term paper. Also, if you change your topic after this date you will lose 5 points. The final draft of your paper is due by 3:30 PM, Thursday June 4th. Note that no late papers will be accepted, unless you encounter an extreme emergency and follow the appropriate procedures as outlined in the syllabus.
Cou dac at the thon*: Comments on how to write a coherent essay Philosophy (and to some extent college in general) is about quality more than quantity. In theory, we could spend an entire quarter on two essays and that could be sufficient, if they were helping you to understand how philosophy works and they were teaching you how to do philosophy on your own. Philosophy is a skill, not a body of knowledge, so it is never my intent to see just how much material we can cram into a course. Unfortunately students essays often have problems. I never know just what causes a student to do poorly on any given essay. It could be any number of things: Didn t care Didn t have time (work, home) Unexpected time pressures Can t understand articles Undiagnosed dyslexia Poor preparation Poor instruction Not here for class Because poor test performance could be due to any number of these factors, many of which are personally none of my business, I leave it to students to be self-disciplined, and do not think less of them as a person if they do poorly on an exam. Furthermore, I would encourage you to not judge yourself simply based on whatever score you may receive. Don t judge yourself on whatever score you receive, however, you do need to ask yourself why you did poorly, and address those reasons, if you are interested in improving your grade in the course. So here are some various ways to screw up an essay: 1.the list : barely connected and barely (if at all) explained quotes or paraphrases masquerading as quotes 2.not answering every question asked 3.the incoherent mess (e.g. Cou dac at the thon ) 4.the unreadable mess 5.just plain getting wrong what an author supposedly said 6.not actually ever responding to the question 7.telling me that my question is a bad one 8.trying to save my eternal soul 9.telling me what an author thinks, but never telling me what you think & why you think it 10.the unconnected quotes paper 11.assuming that the dictionary has the right answer 12.the compare and contrast where you never compare and contrast, you just tell me what each author thinks 13.using articles that were not assigned (and therefore I m not testing you on). 14.Using authors to support your view by simply summarizing their positions after telling me your opinion on the matter 15.the every other word is misspelled 16.the quotes inserted without explaining what they mean 17.the misquotes When you look at my comments on your essays, notice the shorthand symbols I use. Also keep in mind that I never use sarcasm in my written comments to students. *I suppose you re wondering what Cou dac at the thon means. So am I. It was submitted as part of an answer to an essay question for another instructor many years ago.
COURSE CALENDAR Week and Topic Readings for Tuesday Readings for Thursday 1. Introduction, the Nature of Religion 2. The Nature of Religion and Religious Experience March 31: Syllabus Questionnaire April 7: An Evolutionary Account of Religion Daniel Dennett A Defense of Religious Realism Roger Trigg The Meaning of Religious Beliefs is their Use D. Z. Phillips April 2: Trekkies, "The Nature of Religion" by Ninian Smart at phil267.weebly.com, Tillich and Smart In-class Handout April 9: Religious Experiences Saint Teresa Religious Experience as the Root of Religion William James Critique of Religious Experience Michael Martin 3. Faith and Reason April 14: NO CLASS April 16: The Wager Blaise Pascal Truth is Subjectivity Søren Kierkegaard 4. Faith and Reason & The Divine Attributes April 21: The Ethics of Belief William Clifford The Will to Believe William James Recommended: Podcast at phil267.weebly.com April 23: Negative Theology Maimonides Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence George I. Mavrodes 5. The Divine Attributes April 28: Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action Nelson Pike God is Timeless Boethius God is Everlasting Nicholas Wolterstorff April 30: God is Creative- Responsive Love Cobb and Griffin Atman is Brahman The Upanishads Essay Exam Questions distributed
6. Exam I, The Problem of Evil May 5: Exam I, Quiz 1 May 7: God on Trial and guest speaker: Rev. Terry Kyllo, Rector of St. Phillips Episcopal Church, Marysville and coordinator of The Catacomb Churches 7. Arguments for Atheism May 12: God Is a Projection of Human Nature Ludwig Feuerbach Evil Makes a Strong Case Against God s Existence David Hume Evil and Omnipotence J.L. Mackie May 14: The Evidential Argument from Evil William Rowe Soul-Making Theodicy John Hick Philosophy Bites Podcast: Marilyn Adams on the Problem of Evil (on itunes) 8. The Ontological Argument for God s existence 9. A Posteriori Arguments for God s Existence and Naturalism May 19: The Classical Ontological Argument Saint Anselm Critique of Anselm s Argument Gaunilo Pages 138-140 (Plantinga) May 26: The Analogical Teleological Argument William Paley Critique of the Analogical Teleological Argument David Hume May 21: Critique of the Cosmological Argument J.L. Mackie The Kalam Cosmological Argument William Lane Craig May 28: Nova: Universe or Multiverse? The Encounter Between Naturalistic Atheism and Christian Theism Michael Peterson 10. Life After Death June 2: Rebirth Sri Aurobindo Problems with Accounts of Life After Death Linda Badham Resurrection of the Person John Hick June 4: Term Papers Due Final Conclusions Essay Exam Questions distributed Monday June 8th from 2-3:50: Exam II, Quiz 2 Mike VanQuickenborne mvanquickenborne@everettcc.edu 425.DUTYFUL Gray Wolf Hall 311 Office Hours: Tu & Th 12:20-2:25
COURSE GRADING RECORD Assignment Possible Points Your score Short Essays: 60 points Scantron Quiz 1: 50 points Essay Exam 1: 120 points Scantron Quiz 2: 50 points Essay Exam 2: 120 points Term Paper: 100 points TOTAL: 500 points TOTAL: Grading*: 2 A course grade is...an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgement by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinable material. Paul Dressel Your grade is based solely on the quantity and quality of your work done on time, not your intentions, personality, or even how hard you worked on a particular exam. I will not curve the course in any way. The grading scale is as follows (in points): A: 463-500 C+: 383-397 Basic Translation: A-: 448-462 C: 363-382 (An A indicates excellent coursework) B+: 433-447 C-: 348-362 (A B indicates good coursework) B: 413-432 D+: 333-347 (A C indicates average coursework) B-: 398-412 D: 313-332 (A D indicates minimally passing coursework) F: 0-312 (An F indicates failing coursework) If you stop coming to class, it is entirely your responsibility to complete the paperwork to withdraw from the course. Anyone who fails to complete any of the coursework and who stops attending without officially withdrawing from the class will receive a V grade which negatively affects your ability to transfer to the university of your choice and can possibly cause problems with financial aid. If you are auditing the class you must have attended at least two thirds of the classes, lesser attendance will result in a V grade. * If you are repeating this course in order to replace an earlier grade in the same course please see me as soon as possible.